Here is one you don’t see everyday

Jeff Dunham the famous ventriloquist who shows up every other weekend on Comedy Central in three hour blocks of programming, has an interesting situation going on in real life.

It seems that the ex-wife of Mr. Dunham, Paige Dunham decided to play the domain game and register the names of his future wife under privacy. Then the ex-wife looked to sell those names to the new wife for a substantial sum.

The Washington Post covered the story:

[Audrey] Dunham v. [Paige] Dunham (C.D. Cal. Jan. 21, 2015), involving the current and past wives of “ventriloquist, producer and stand-up comedian Jeff Dunham” (Hollywood Reporter, Eriq Gardner).

On or about January 3, 2012, Defendant, without notice to Plaintiff, registered the following domain names through Network Solutions, LLC, a domain name registering company: AudreyDunham.com, AudreyDunham.net, AudreyDunham.us, and AudreyDunham.biz (collectively “Accused Domains”). On information and belief, Defendant concealed her name as the registrant for AudreyDunham.com, AudreyDunham.net, and AudreyDunham.biz domains by employing the services of Perfect Privacy, LLC, a company that specializes in keeping the identities of domain name registrants private. Defendant knew at the time she registered the Accused Domains, that Plaintiff would soon change her name to AUDREY DUNHAM….

On or about January 4, 2013, Plaintiff asked Defendant, in writing, to transfer the Accused Domains to Plaintiff and offered to reimburse Defendant for any out-of-pocket expenses associated with transferring the Accused Domains. Defendant refused to transfer the Accused Domains. On or about January 18, 2013, Defendant, through her agent, offered to sell the Accused Domains to Plaintiff in exchange for a payment of tens of thousands of dollars, for each domain name….

The author of the article, Eugene Volokh points out that if this turns out to be true, then conduct likely would indeed be actionable, especially under 15 U.S.C. § 8131